Overview

The Newly Independent States Nonproliferation Program (NISNP) is dedicated to carrying out the CNS mission in Russia and the other Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. Since 1991, NISNP has worked to establish a multi-disciplinary community of nonproliferation specialists across the former Soviet Union. Today, NISNP works closely with the Nonproliferation Education Program in areas of education, training, and outreach and facilitates integration of NIS specialists into the international nonproliferation community.

NISNP also conducts research and publishes analysis on topics related to nonproliferation in the NIS, as well as on international nonproliferation issues and security concerns as they pertain to this region. Recent and on-going research projects and events are focused on the following issues:

• Russian and U.S. views on and approaches to WMD proliferation threats;
• Russian nuclear posture and nuclear doctrine developments;
• The Russian position on strategic and tactical nuclear weapons reduction and transparency;
• Views of the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism in the NIS;
• Soviet-origin HEU repatriation and the elimination of civilian use of HEU;
• Illicit nuclear and radioactive materials trafficking;
• Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone;
• Export controls in the NIS;
• Development of civilian nuclear energy in the NIS and its impact on nuclear nonproliferation;
• Participation in and implementation of nonproliferation treaties and initiatives in the NIS, including UNSC Resolution 1540 and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative.
• Assessment of Cooperative Threat Reduction and other foreign nonproliferation assistance to Russia and the NIS;
• G-8 Global Partnership;
• Dismantlement of Russian nuclear submarines;
• Archives

NISNP employs graduate student research assistants, drawn from the Monterey Institute's student body, whose work for the program forms an integral part of their training in nonproliferation.